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Our national water treatment and pipe infrastructure has a value of over $3.6T with nearly 60% of the value underground. University studies suggest water distribution systems have increased in the number of water main breaks overall by 27%. These studies also highlight the growing uncertainty of the performance of metallic pipes in corrosive soils and the higher break rates with pipes 12 inches in diameter and less which size represents nearly 85% of all water pipe inventories. Now, with the abundance of pipe related data and analytical models, the industry is realizing that age-based methods are not effective. Many utilities strive for a goal of replacing 1% of their pipe network each year, representing a 100- year replacement cycle metric. The primary purpose of these replacements is to avoid service disruptions (leaks, breaks, sinkholes, etc.). These disruptions obviously have documentable economic impacts with revenue loss due to water outage as well as repair costs. To guide replacement priorities, most utilities currently employ some form of subjective strategy such as age-based or scoring/matrix approaches (i.e. assigning weights and factors of 1 to 5 for various inputs). The desired intent is to replace the riskiest pipes first to avoid the occurrence and impact of failures. These kind of models can successfully reduce pipe network breaks between 5% and 10% over three years at an annual replacement rate of 1% of the system. With the increase of water main breaks, the effectiveness of the scoring/matrix prioritization model will not keep up with new breaks. An advanced multi-model approach (not just a machine learning model only) has been shown to achieve a much higher level of break reduction, 35% for each mile of pipe replaced. This pipe risk assessment methodology can justify budget reductions while maintaining current service level expectations by reducing breaks in an equal amount as before and replacing far less pipe.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, over half of all commercial buildings were constructed before 1980. Unfortunately, as commercial floor space is utilized, infrastructure ages, and facilities weather, the risks of equipment failure, personnel safety, and costly downtimes grow. In order to keep organizations safe and productive, facilities managers are increasingly turning to interactive indoor maps to support data-driven facilities management. Learn how interactive indoor maps help facilities, operations, and security operations finish more tasks, complete more projects, improve safety, and make commercial building space increasingly productive for their occupants.
While small cities and rural communities face the same challenges as larger and urban communities to address sustainability issues. This panel discusses how sustainability is being advanced in small cities…
The Weather Data Environment (WxDE) is a comprehensive system for managing a national road weather observation database available to the road weather community for operations and research. The system manages Road Weather Information System(RWIS) observation data for States, Cities, Counties, and MPOs with the ultimate objective of being a shared source for all RWIS data nationally. The WxDE provides tools for acquiring quality-checked road weather data and forecasts from various (RWIS) in differing data formats, and data transfer protocols. The WxDE supports subscriptions for access to real-time data in near real time. This access provides data for winter operation decision support, connected vehicle research, application development and pilot project demonstrations. Success of the WxDE is predicated on continuous collaboration between the contributors and the users of the data. Weather events do not happen within individual states or county borders. By providing access to shared road weather data from across the nation, decision support solutions used by maintenance operators can be more efficient and effective. The WxDE is a critical tool for the road weather community as we continue to advance road weather research and operations in pursuit of our ultimate goal of achieving the highest levels of safety, mobility and productivity on the nation’s surface transportation system. This presentation will discuss in detail the WxDE in its current form, including operations and research applications. The discussion will include a scenario based step by step approach to integrating road weather data into any city or county road weather management program and highlight the value to the program. It will also demonstrate how the WxDE fits into a larger framework of Non-Recurring Event data as part of a comprehensive Transportation System Management Operation (TSMO) plan.
In this educational session, you will meet the new National LTAP Association President and hear from a panel of Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) Center Directors. The partnership between APWA and the NLTAPA has grown stronger over time and we will share with you many ways the LTAP centers are making a difference for local transportation agencies. You will also receive some resources to take back to your agency.
As many cities across the country have struggled to meet changing recycling market conditions, the City of Phoenix found a solution to this issue through a public and private partnership. This partnership was established to assist with the upgrade of the North Gateway MRF to ensure that the city was able to meet new industry standards, which includes more stringent commodity specifications (residual requirements) and change in inbound material composition. The North Gateway Transfer Station (NGTS) processes recyclables from North Phoenix, the City of Peoria, and the City of Prescott. The $4.5 million upgrade to this facility was funded by a $3 million no-interest loan from the Closed Loop Fund, $1 million from the City of Peoria, and the remainder was covered by city funds. Upgrades to NGTS began in September 2019 and concluded in December 2019. Equipment upgrades at the facility included two new anti-wrap disk screens, two new optical sorters, a drum feeder, expansion to the pre-sort line, critical infrastructure upgrades to the electrical and fire life safety systems, and a ballistic separator. Benefits from the upgrade include a substantial improvement of the capture of glass, paper, PET, OCC and aluminum; the ability to achieve tighter material quality specifications; 50% improvement in MRF throughput (processing speed); increased inbound processing capacity due to increased throughput; reduced residuals sent to landfill; the ability to temporarily process the City of Scottsdale’s recyclables since their MRF burned down in 2019; the ability to temporarily shoulder recyclables from 27th Avenue transfer station as this MRF underwent baler replacements over two weeks; and the ability to process more fiber products due to the increased demand of cardboard and paper during the COVID shutdown. None of these benefits would have been possible without the upgrades.
Today, technology is rapidly changing, and keeping pace can be difficult. Public works departments are always one of the first disciplines to embrace new technology trends. This session will provide insight and training into the areas geographic information systems (GIS) is improving mission-critical and day-to-day operations. You will walk away with practical knowledge in: • Shifting to real-time operations • Leveraging drones • Integrating artificial intelligence and machine-learning • Embracing the new field mobility tools • Evolving your civic engagement • Leading through advanced data and analytics
Leaders often become leaders simply because of their title of boss, supervisor, CEO, President, Director, Manager, etc. They can influence others simply because of that leadership role they play, but that is temporary. As soon as that title changes, or as soon as leaders goes somewhere else, that person is no longer a person of influence to that group of individuals they served. That is when Moral Authority comes into play. A person with Moral Authority is a person of influence for an indefinite period of time, but this influence can be taken away immediately with just one incident that doesn’t go in alignment with the characteristics that define Moral Authority. This type of leadership aligns with characteristics such as credibility, trust, respect, accountability, and actions. Actions speak louder than words, trust and respect are held at the highest regard, and personal accountability defines this type of leadership.
According to Terry Tempest Williams, “Storytelling is the oldest form of education” and at the City of Des Moines, Iowa, we pride ourselves on humanizing government by telling our story to help educate those we serve on who we are, what we do, and how they can assist us in accomplishing our mission. The Department of Public Works as well as the Des Moines Metropolitan Wastewater Reclamation Authority (WRA) have recently put extra attention and effort into sharing their stories through the use of different platforms. The avenues used include both internal and external. The internal resources are ones “owned” by the city and include online (websites, social media, e-newsletters) and print (quarterly publication; utility bill inserts). The external resources include our partners in radio, television, and print outlets. As one of the most public facing departments in the city, this mentality has proven to be well received by the public and the residents we serve. It gives us the opportunity to reach everyone in ways beyond mailed letters, door hangers and other more traditional means.
Presented by the APWA Government Affairs Committee The 117th Congress was sworn into office in early January 2021, and is well underway. Infrastructure has been a ‘hot topic’ for Congress and APWA’s public policy priorities for this session of Congress are all infrastructure related. Come and receive a current update from the APWA Government Affairs team about happenings in Congress related to APWA’s public policy priorities of Surface Transportation Reauthorization, Water Resiliency, and Emergency Management. On September 30, 2021 the current surface transportation law will expire, and so will the National Flood Insurance Program. Further, this year multiple water infrastructure bills have been introduced, and regulatory matters such as the Lead and Copper Rule and Waters of the US are under review, and the potential health impacts of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are of concern. Additionally, APWA members and staff have been diligent about increasing the awareness and recognition by lawmakers of public works professionals as first responders and key players in planning, mitigating, and recovering from disaster situations. APWA’s Government Affairs efforts are strong–come hear the latest legislative updates!